Behave Yourself! 10 Words for Good, Bad, and Indifferent Conduct

It's important to be precise about behavior. Saying that "someone breaks the rules" is boring and doesn't convey the nerve they have in breaking them the way "someone is brazenly flouting the rules" does. From our friends at Vocabulary.com, here are words describing people's behavior that are easy to confuse with other words, or easy to be confused about, period.

The problem with this word is that temperate is often associated with things you don't do—like drink, or engage in excessive behavior of any kind. So with the negative in- at the front, the word means to engage in that kind of excess.

unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech

Although it may sound cheerful, like it means "having a full belly" or "overflowing," the connotations of fulsome are not very positive. As used in the phrase "fulsome praise," however, the word has been misunderstood to mean "abundant."

marked by lack of definite plan or regularity or purpose; jumping from one thing to another

This word may sound sad or depressing, and it is, in the sense that something not well thought out or half-hearted can be a little bit sad. Desultory suggests that the intention is there, but the will or strength to really see something through to the full extent may not be.

To see more words describing different kinds of behavior, and to add them to your vocabulary-learning program, see the full list at Vocabulary.com.

Also on Mental Floss:

DID YOU KNOW? Marlon Brando hated memorizing lines so much that he posted cue cards everywhere to help him get through scenes.
He even asked for lines to be written on an actress's posterior. (That request was denied.)